HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Happy Holidays to all. I hope 2008 is great for everyone!! And here's to lots of great knitting over the holiday break. Woohoo!!

Updated dead tree count

Continuing my little project of counting the accumulated catalogs for the holiday season, 4 more arrived Friday. One arrived Saturday, so that brings the total so far to 17 catalogs since Nov. 29. My little recycling crate is already 25% full!

It's a wonder we still have trees...

This lovely selection of catalogs is what was in my mailbox when I came home last night. I think it was about two pounds of paper. Count them - 12 catalogs!!! All trying to persuade me to buy crappy, overpriced Christmas gifts no one needs or wants. And I have been receiving similar amounts of catalogs for the past few weeks, and will continue, I imagine, for the next few weeks. I really need to figure our how to get off some of these mailing lists!!!!

In other news, here's a picture of the finished baby sweater and hat, complete with buttons:
The color's not at all accurate, and you'll have to excuse the lamp base taking up valuable photo real estate. It was a cloudy afternoon, and my office is pretty dark. Here's a close-up of the button. The color's much more accurate here:I was really pleased with the outcome. The buttons, from M & J, really brought the finished product together. The were more than I was hoping to spend, and cost more than the yarn used in the project, but they were worth it. And the recipient LOVED it. Yay!!!

So Cute!

One of my co-workers is having a baby in a few weeks, and her shower is tomorrow night, so I made a little baby sweater for the occasion. I used the patter for a Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater from Carole's Baby Knits. I still need to get buttons, but I think it turned out really well.

It's hard to see in this picture, but there's a cute stitch detail at the yoke, hem and cuffs.

Details:

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK - Eggplant - 2.5 sk.

Needles: #5 - Denise

Started: Nov.15

Finished: Nov. 24

This was a great subway knitting project, and I was able to knit it almost exclusively while on my way to and from work. I think I'm going to knock out a quick Umbilical Cord Hat tonight, since I've got plenty of the yarn left.

In other news, Thanksgiving was awesome, as was the whole past weekend.

Here is a picture of the wonderful meal we had over at my friends Kristen and Matthew's apartment. There were 12 of us crammed around the table, and it was a lot of fun. As you can see above, we had delicious turkey (roasted by Matthew), mashed potatoes with gravy, cornbread stuffing (both vegetarian and non), roast veggies, macaroni & cheese (both vegetarian and non), green bean casserole, butternut squash and spinach gratin and cranberry sauce. I took the cranberries and the squash/spinach gratin. Everyone seemed to like the gratin, though I thought it was quite flat. And I do think the cranberries were the highlight of the meal!

WTF, Eunny?

Have you seen the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits yet? This looks to be Eunny's first entirely solo issue, as Pam Allen had already planned through the Fall issue prior to her departure, and I have to say I'm not pleased. I grudgingly accepted the re-design in the fall issue that made Interweave look more like Vogue Knitting, but then Winter's issue hits and I'm smacked with a whole batch of ugly! HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW MODELS? Where did they find these women? What I have always liked so much about IK is they used young, fresh faces. They looked natural and wholesome. And they were diverse, and ATTRACTIVE. The women in the Winter issue are nothing like the models I have come to expect in an IK publication. The cover model isn't terrible, but strikes me a bit as a poor man's Jennifer Garner. But the others? Yuck. I know they have hair stylists at these photo shoots, so what the hell happened to the blond chick? She looks like she should be modeling for the Sag Harbor line at JCPenney. And the chick in the Selva Skirt and Henley Perfected? Well, I just have nothing good to say. She's all forehead and sneer. Add to that the locations/settings of the pictures are all bad, and it just makes me sad. I really thought Eunny, considering her age, would keep IK on a youthful path. But this issue suggests otherwise. I look forward to seeing if this new look continues in the future. Because it may influence whether I renew my subscription.

Doo Doo Doo...

Lots and not much happening around these parts. Just when I thought I was showing some interest in finally finishing Sunrise Circles, I started on The Minimalist Cardigan from IK Fall 07. It's going swimmingly, I must say. I'm using Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al in Burgundy. It's nice. Cast on last Thursday night, finished the back on Wednesday, cast on the right front yesterday morning on the way to work, and its nearly done. I should have it finished on the commute home tonight, and probably do most of the left front tonight while catching up on television. I'm shooting to finish the sleeves this weekend as well. Who knows? I could have a finished sweater this time next week, which would be awesome. But I guess I shouldn't count my chickens, huh? I've taken a couple of progress shots, but left my camera at home.

I think I'm going to place an order from Webs, though I'm trying to talk myself out of it. I've got my eye on some Ella Rae Classic, and I'm thinking of picking up some more Classic Al while it's at the rock bottom price. Oh, temptation!

Hey, Me. Welcome back!

Phew! What a summer. Can you believe it's nearly gone already? Tomorrow brings the last half-day Friday of the season at my office, and let me just say they'll be sorely missed come September. *Sigh!*

But on the bright side, what this really means is the weather is starting to cool off, and I'm actually interested in knitting again. Woohoo!!! I picked up Sunrise Circles Wednesday night, and knit about 15 rows on the back, and another dozen last night. When was the last time I worked on Sunrise Circles you might ask? Oh, maybe February? March? Regardless, it's been a while. I'm working it up in Dale of Norway Sisik. Nice yarn to the touch, but a little shed-y. I'm not sure I'm going to like the finished product, but I feel like I need to see it through to the end. Or at least to the piecing-it-together stage, when I can decide if I like the fit enough to seam it. My finishing skills are, shall we say, underdeveloped. So the closer I come to the end of the knitting, the more dread I feel. Which just causes me to have start-itis. And a gaggle of projects in various stages of un-completion. What can I say? People taught me knitting, not finishing. And not knowing an other knitters to ask for help doesn't help.

Anyway, on to other topics. I had a great summer. I hope you all did too. Shall we re-cap the highlights? OK!
- Lonely, Dear and The Sea & Cake at Sound Fix. Loved Lonely, Dear. Bought his album Lonely, Noir, and you should too. It's truly amazing!
- Built to Spill at McCarren Pool. Good show. Haven't seen them in years. Hoped they would play Cortez the Killer, my fave song of theirs, but alas they did not. And Cat Power? Sober or not, I still think she sucks.
- Got to see Frost/Nixon and Grey Gardens before they closed. Both great, but my seat for Grey Gardens was way up in the rafters and kinda ruined it for me because the sound sucked.
- Band of Horses at McCarren Pool. Good show, but spoiled a little because the friends I was with kept talking.
- Trail of Dead at Luna Lounge. F'ing awesome!! I can't get enough of those guys. They could have played 4 hours and it still wouldn't have been enough for me. :) And when was the last time you saw a band for $5. Nice gesture guys, thanks!
- I'm from Barcelona and Blonde Redhead at McCarren Pool. Both good, but I had to listen to I'm from Barcelona from outside the pool as the line to get in was impossibly long. And again the friend I was with talked through the entire show.
- Beastie Boys at McCarren Pool. Who would have thought I'd finally get the chance to see them somewhere besides a huge arena? And in Brooklyn no less? They were great. Their set was great. The mobile/stabile on stage was really cool. Brought back fond memories of being 10 and hearing "Brass Monkey" and "You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party" at the roller rink.
- The hottest 10 days of the summer spent in Missouri, with my family who don't believe in air conditioning. Can you say ouch? I love my parents, and always love being home, but 100+ degrees and high humidity does not a relaxing vacation make.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I actually put off reading this for a few weeks after I got it because I wasn't ready for the Harry Potter world to come to a close. But it was a fitting end to a truly wonderful series that I'm already ready to re-read.
- Superbad. The best movie I saw this summer. Hilarious. Almost unspeakably so. Followed by The Simpsons Movie. I was greatly relieved that it was good. And not just good, but GOOD.

So what's up for the fall, you ask? Well, not much. I've started saving for a trip to Japan in the spring, so I'm supposed to be on a really tight budget. So it looks like a lot of knitting to pass the time. And trust me, I've got a lot to do. Just this week, even on my new budget, I bought yarn for 2 projects. First, I got some Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al for The Minimalist Cardigan in the Fall issue of Interweave Knits. It was on sale at Webs for $3.49, so how could I resist? Then I got some Filature di Crosa Zara from Elann for $3.98. It's for the Cabled Spiral Pullover from Knitting Nature. The pattern called for Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK, but they're the same yarn, and the Zara was cheaper than the Jaeger at Webs, and there was a better color selection. So that brings my gut wrenching total of sweaters in queue to 19!! And that doesn't even include other projects, like gift knitting, scarves, hats, bags, etc. I should probably un-subscribe to Interweave so I stop seeing nice projects and stop feeling tempted, but the web is such an enabler!!